As part of our ‘Ask the Expert Tutor’ series, we will be discussing Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold. This text is frequently studied at IBDP.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a 1981 novella (or short novel) by Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez. It is often considered one of his masterpieces and is a frequently chosen text for IB Literature students. It reconstructs the events leading up to the murder of a man named Santiago Nasar by a pair of twins in a small Colombian village. Márquez explores why the villagers, who know of the brothers’ intentions, do not try to warn Nasar.

Even though most editions of the novella only run to about 120 pages, this is a dense text, filled with vital thematic explorations of honour, misogyny, and fate. While students often enjoy the text, IBDP candidates sometimes miss the nuances and subtleties of Márquez’s writing. It’s easy to understand why – Márquez deliberately avoids easy answers, preferring to pose ethical and thematic questions for the reader to tease out for themselves. In that sense, it is a novella that is very much in-line with the IBDP ethos, perhaps explaining why it’s such a popular text for English Literature teachers and students at IB level.

Ultimately, Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a story of collective responsibility, told through an enquiring lens that encourages readers to interpret events of their own accord. This makes it both a fascinating and challenging text for those studying English Literature at IB level.

Perhaps the most well known aspect of Márquez’s writing is his pioneering of ‘magical realism’. An offshoot of postmodernism, magical realism is a style that brings fantastical or folkloric elements into otherwise ‘realistic’ and grounded stories.

Márquez earned a reputation, particularly outside of Colombia and South America more generally, thanks to his use of the style in his works. While there are no overtly fantastical elements in Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and it tells an apparently grounded story, Márquez’s facility with the style is present throughout the novella. It can be seen in the presentation of the narrator’s tone as straddling the line between journalistic and a folk story teller, as well as the often archetypal characters that populate the novella.

In fact, it is Márquez’s handle on structure that makes the novella such a significant work, and so rich for study at IB level. It presents itself as a detective novel, but in reality, there is very little to ‘detect’. The reader knows from the first page who died, how he was killed, and even who the murderers were. There are no unanswered questions, not even an heroic truth-seeker. Instead, the reader is left with an all too mundane story of a community’s failures, and their own complicity in reading this tragic folktale.

For those studying IB Literature, Chronicle of a Death Foretold challenges them through its complex use of symbolism, and its handling of themes. It is important that IB students do not dwell too much on the plot of the novella, instead focusing on Márquez’s use of language, structure and other authorial choices. This is how an IB candidate can truly earn marks in an exam setting.

IB English Literature students should aim for well-developed analytical responses to all their texts, and this is also true of their study of Chronicle of a Death Foretold. The core of any IB English Literature response lies in the student’s use of a PEEL paragraph structure. All analysis needs to be anchored by a coherent Point, Evidence, and Explanation, followed by a Link to the next body paragraph. While this is challenging, IB candidates are capable of producing such responses when given effective coaching and support.

Let’s take a look at a sample question and a brief response from an IB English Literature student.

Compare how two works in your study have explored the themes of judgment and punishment, or disguise and deceit, or love and friendship, and with what effect.

Márquez uses his narrator to explore the idea of unnecessary and unjust punishment in Chronicle of a Death Foretold. While not explicitly unreliable, this narrator’s passivity allows Márquez to suggest that he mirrors the villagers in some ways. For example, he does not really condemn them for their inaction, instead trying to explain it away and justify the actions of the murderers. This shows that Márquez wants the reader to feel complicit in this unjust punishment, and therefore question the very idea of justice in our own communities.

While this IB Literature student has clearly made an effort with the above response, there are still significant issues that remain. Firstly, the candidate has not pointed to particular and specific examples (usually accompanied by language analysis), instead sticking to general statements about the author’s intentions. There are also plenty of great and valid ideas in this response about complicity and the character of the narrator of Márquez’s novella, but it would be better to see one or two of them be more fully developed with lengthier examples and the analytical vocabulary expected of someone studying English Literature at IB level.

At BartyED, we have coached countless GCSE, IGCSE, A-Level, and IB learners in all aspects of literary analysis. Our expert tutors are trained to recognise and target areas of weakness in students so as to assist these young learners in improving their critical thinking and writing skills. If you believe that you or your child, be they studying GCSE, IGCSE, A-Level, or IB, could benefit from the guidance of an experienced tutor, please reach out to us today by phone (+852 2882 1017) or email (enquiries@bartyed.com).

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